Friday, August 14, 2015

SavuSavu to Saweni

Our
departure plans from Savusavu were heavily influenced by the brief weather
window (1 ½- 2 days), during which the “Strong wind advisory with rough seas
for all Fiji”, was taking a break!

The burst
holding tank situation also put us under pressure to find a safe, and somewhat “isolated “ anchorage, in which I could begin
to tackle the malodorous problem!

Our plan was
to do the 50 mile leg, around the Namena Barrier reef, to Makongai, overnight there, and then cross the Makongai Channel
early the next morning before the wind piped up. We were warned that this
little 12 mile channel acts as a katabatic funnel, which can escalate a 25 knot
breeze into a wild gale!

Anchored off the village on Makongai

Leaving Makongai at crack of dawn

We had also wanted to stop over at the Naigani Island
for a couple of days, but local sailing guru, Curly, said the natives were not
too friendly! With cannibalism being one of their earlier culinary delights,
and the wind predicted to pick up again, we gave it a miss too, and made for
Nana i thake, midway along the north coast.

The route
via Naigani takes one inside the reef which protects the north of Viti Levu,
but the original paper charts, and the electronic Navionic charts (which we use
on our chartplotter) are not all that accurate! Our first step was to plot all
Curly’s waypoint’s for the route, and see how they looked on the chart plotter,
and Open CPN, a computer based navigation and chart system. Apart from going
over a few reefs here and there, it did not look too bad! There were also
supposed to be channel markers in place, but we knew that 50% had been lost
over time.

A channel marker in its death throes!

The final check was to overlay the route on the Google earth maps,
which show the reefs more clearly.

Our route through the reefs on the north coast of Viti Levu

Along the
way, we caught two mystery fish, the likes of which we had never seen before!

Torpedo Scad.....made a reasonable curry, but will be returned in future

Wolf Herring......very bony.....made fishcakes, but never again!

As it turned out, we had a good sail to Makongai, and crossed the channel
motoring in dead calm! It was a really weird experience motoring through a
narrow gap in the surrounding reef, having no visual reference apart from
waypoints and depth. The last couple of miles into Nana I thake were incredibly
winding and the opening into the huge anchorage was hidden until the very last
turn.

We anchored
a couple of hundred metres away from a big cruise stink pot, which alternated
its deck lights between pink and gold each night!

Little did they or their
guests know what we were about to empty into the water! Well, at last I could
set about the horrible task of draining and removing the burst tank. It was
a VERY NASTY job, which required taking
the cupboards apart, disconnecting all the pipes, numerous swims, deep
breathing exercises, showers, vast quantities of detergent and bleach, plus some psychiatric and language counseling
from Mary!

The split in the holding tank!

At last the
job was done, and I was able to re plumb the heads using my spare pipe and
connections. Two days later, Sheer Tenacity was back to her sweet smelling
self, with a fully operational loo, and the Porta Potty back in stowage!

Fortunately,
we were well protected from the winds which blew strongly over the island, and
by the time the jobs were done, the wind eased up, and we could carry on to
Vatia Wharf, ( just a convenient night stop)and Lautoka, (the official
clearance port/town… rather scruffy, smoky, and not very appealing as an
anchorage!),

A sad sight, approaching Lautoka!

The very busy wharf at Lautoka

before dropping the hook in nearby Saweni Bay… quiet, protected, and safe in all winds apart from the Northerlies.

Sunset in Saweni

One of 2 reefs in Saweni Bay, completely submerged at hightide

Now I could
start trying to find out what the problem was with the autopilot!